Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Happy Birthday



We work alot with the Office Elders. On my birthday they were wearing matching sweaters so I thought it would be fun to take a picture with them. The other picture is with Elder Smith. His companion Elder Davis made me a pan of cheese cake brownies which you can barely see. The other cake Jeanie made for me. -- So that made 4 cakes for my birthday. In addition there was a cake mix in the package Megan and Rachelle sent. Good thing we walk alot here. :)

Happy Birthday



These are the AP's ( red tie, my new son, Elder Smith- dark tie, Elder Davis) and the Office Elders. ( glasses - Elder Conklin, dark hair- Elder Johnson) Also included a picture of the red roses they gave me. Really sweet young men. I love serving with them.

Happy Birthday


This is the Bagozzis and my companion Jeanie Hanson. We have a pink crown everyone wears on their birthday - male or female. We also use the same tablecloth each time. We now have some new candles so we don't need to use the same ones over and over. We all have a great time together.

Happy Birthday


These are two of my birthday cakes. Elder Murray made me a Red Velvet Cake. He and Sister Johnson gave it to me on Transfer day. They were serving in Buda when I first arrived. I love them. The other cake is confetti cake. Jana and Candy made it for me when they were here. I also love them and I loved having them come visit me. It was so much fun.

Happy Birthday



These presents arrived before my birthday. Steve sent the potted plant somehow thru a florist here in Hungary. ( He's so clever) The package from Megan and Rachelle came the same day only just a few minutes later with all the fun stuff in it. But the first presents to arrive were when Jana and Candy came to visit me. They brought me a present from them and also one from my sister, Christie. So before my birthday even started it was fun.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Elder Murray and Sister Johnson


Elder Murray and Sister Johnson came into the Center on Transfer Day because both of them got "greenies" to train. Elder Murray is the one I entered the cake contest with. He remembered it was my birthday the next day so he made me a Red Velvet cake. Such a nice young man - Sister Johnson is a bundle of energy. They were both serving in Buda when I arrived in Hungary. I loved serving with them.

Elder Mathews


I was able to see Elder Mathews on Transfer Day. As you can see he's enjoying his Mission - fake glasses and all. He has been transferred to an area closer to Buda so I might see him a little more often than before.

Transfer Day


On Transfer Day many of the missionaries come to the Train Station to meet their new companion. We tried to get a picture with many of the Sister Missionaries. We just got 4 new sister missionaries who aren't in the picture. They are going to be great. They will fit right in with the wonderful sister missionaries we have serving here already.

Jana and Candy's Visit

This is the end of a very fun visit. Here we are at the airport just before Jana and Candy check in for their flight home. We had such a great time.

Jana and Candy's Visit



There's a bike shop right next to our apartment door but it looks like a soda machine. When you open the door there's stairs that go down into the basement. It's pretty funny because you see people coming out of this little small door with their bikes. So Jana wanted a picture of her trying to buy a soda. She's hilarious.

Jana and Candy's Visit



Sunday night we fixed dinner for all of our District. We also invited the Baughmans to come. The dinner was delicious. We made stuffed paprikas, oven roasted potatoes, green salad and Candy's yummy homemade rolls. For dessert we had chocolate pudding cake with ice cream. We let the Elders get in line first. It was pretty funny because that never happens. When I told them to go ahead and serve their plates, they didn't know what to do. Elder Conklin said " Sister Smith, are you sure? This is going against everything you've ever taught us. "

Jana and Candy's Visit


This is the night my back was hurting. After laying on the floor for a while I decided to work on a scarf. As you can see the yarn got tangled so Bob and Wendy ( Elder and Sister Bagozzi) helped me get the knot out. It was a bit of a mess. By the way - the scarf turned out very cute. You can see Jeanie taking our picture in the window. :)

Jana and Candy's Visit


Another thing Buda is famous for is the Baths. The yellow building in the background is the Baths. This is as close as we got to going. It was a cold day and the nicest baths ( really swimming pools) are outside. So we just took a picture.

Jana and Candy's Visit



Later that day we went to Heroes square. They have statues of different Heroes of Hungary. Some are Saints, some Kings, some military heroes. As you can see it was a little windy and cold that day. But at least it wasn't raining. At the base of the pillar are 7 men on seven horses. They represent the seven tribes of Hungary that fought for freedom. I was afraid Jana would try to climb one of the horses like Rachelle did when she was here, but fortunately she was able to restrain herself.

Jana and Candy's Visit


Also on Friday we went to the Piac for Paprikas. They are like green peppers only yellow. You can see them in the top left corner of the picture. The flavor isn't as strong as green peppers. We were getting them for our District dinner on Sunday. Too bad you can't find them in California. They are delicious. Jana has our shopping cart that we use to carry everything back to our apartment. It comes in very handy when you've bought alot of groceries.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Jana and Candy's Visit

They fly this flag at the Parliament Building. It is a symbol of their freedom from Russia. At one time their flag had a Russian Symbol in the middle of it. So when they won their freedom, they cut the Russian Symbol out of the flag. This flag flies in rememberance of that. It's very hard to get a picture of it. You have to wait until the wind is blowing just right. Candy won the prize for best picture and she even got the Parliament Building in the backgroud. Well done!!!

Jana and Candy's Visit



On Friday we went to Parliament. Notice in the picture it looks like Jana is laughing hysterically. Well - truth be known this happened many times every day they were here. My cheeks were sore from laughing so much. We had such a great time.

Jana and Candy's Visit




Thursday we spent most of the day at the Nagy Piac. It's a huge indoor shopping mall. Jana and Candy wanted some souvenirs for their family and this is the place to go. We stopped for a break to have lunch. As you can see, we didn't starve. There was a little miscommunication so we ended up with two huge Weiner Schnitzels. Way more than we could possibly eat. Too bad some of the missionaries weren't with us then. We had a great day but all of us were pretty tired when we got home.

Jana and Candy's Visit

After dinner we walked out on the Margit Bridge so everyone could see the city at night. It is a spectacular sight. You can see the Parliament Building in the background.

Jana and Candy's Visit


When we got back from Tatabanya it was almost 6:00 so we decided to go to Trofea's for dinner. Elder Johnson ( the one in the back with dark hair) had never been and of course neither had Jana and Candy. The Elders love to go because it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. I thought I should treat them to dinner. After all they had just spent the entire day with three grown women laughing about almost everthing. So we jumped on the Villamus because public transportation is usually faster than driving a car and headed to Trofea's. I think Jana and Candy thought I was trying to kill them " death thru overeating" but the Elders loved it. Those two young men got their money's worth ( well actually they got my money's worth) :)

Jana and Candy's Visit

After going to the Castle we came home and got ready for a trip to Tatabanya. We met with the YW there to measure them for skirts. We took the Office Elders with us. Elder Conklin and Elder Johnson - Elder Conklin said the Mission Pres is very careful which missionaries he has serve in this area because there are so many young girls. We understood why he said that because these girls were very star struck with the missionaries. But I think it's so nice they have so many in their YW. You don't see that very often in Hungary.

Jana and Candy's Visit



There's also a beautiful church at the bottom of Castle Hill. Notice the roof - all mosaic tiles. The two ravishing women near the car are my friends. The other picture is obviously from inside the church.

Jana and Candy's Visit



The next day we went up to the top of the hill to see Buda Castle. We are standing right in front of the castle. The other picture is of the Danube from the Castle. It's a beautiful city. The big dome you see in the background is St Stephen's Basilica. It's the largest church in Hungary. His right hand is on display in there. It's kind of creepy to see, but I guess it's suppose to be a cool thing.

Jana and Candy's Visit

The first day of their trip we went to one of my favorite places for an early dinner. In the middle of the table is a huge plate of oven potatoes I told you about. Delicious but too many for one person to eat. So always take a friend if you want to order them. This time I took two of my best friends and it was so much fun.

Service Project

We are working on hats and scarves for a local orphanage. I was surprised that even some of the young men are willing to help with this project. As you can see we have a couple missionaries helping us as well. It's a very fun Service Project. We are hoping to deliver them in the early part of December.

Me and Laci


This young man also likes to call me mom. He's super nice and very funny. He's holding the name card he made for our FHE chart. He's a little too old to come to the Center but we let him come because he is single and none of his family belongs to the church. He's growing out his beard because he's going to be a Zombie in a Brad Pitt movie. We don't plan to go see it because I'm pretty sure it will be rated R.

Hungarian Wedding




This is the Hungarian Wedding we went to a few weeks ago. Notice the poor husband - he doesn't look very happy. We didn't see him smile until the food came out later that day at the reception. I guess we know who will be in charge in their home. But it was fun to see a real Hungarian Wedding.

Elder Bagozzi's Stew


Elder Bagozzi told the YA he would make them his famous stew if we had 50 come to our last Fireside. We had 52 come so he made stew for them. Best part was that we didn't have to fix dinner that night. Thank you Elder and Sister Bagozzi - Also, the stew was Yummy.

Elder Smith

This is Elder Smith. He is the new Assistant. He is such a nice young man. He always calls me "Mom". He found out last week that his "real" mom and I have the same first name. So I guess that must be a sign. The other night at an activity he told some of the YA that I was his mom. They didn't know what to think. He was even trying to convince them that we look alike. It was pretty funny. He's also from Phoenix Arizona so I told him I would come visit him when I go to Arizona to visit some of my children. Welcome to our Family - Elder Smith